As we planned our trip to Maine, Acadia National Park was definitely on the “must-do” list. But with so much to do and see in the park, it was difficult to decide what we absolutely must see. The park is so vast and beautiful that you could spend at least a week exploring and taking in the sights. However, we were only in the Bar Harbor area for a few days, and we had a lot of different places we wanted to visit.
If you’re on a time crunch, or planning to spend less than a day in Acadia National Park, then we recommend you take a look at our suggestions.
Park Loop Road – Car or bus?
The best way to explore the park is to follow Park Loop Road. This paved road circles around most of the park and allows easy access to most of the park’s main attractions.
In the parking lot at the visitor center, you’ll see a few bus stops. One route is labeled “Loop Road.” The Island Explorer Loop Road makes seven stops along the way. This bus is completely free, courtesy of L.L. Bean.
After getting to the park headquarters, you have an important decision to make: Are you going to drive yourself or take the bus?
Deciding whether to take the bus or our own car down the road was a bit of a conundrum. Do we take the bus and not have to worry about traffic? Or do we take our own car and have the freedom to stay at a certain place for as long as we wanted? Benny loves bus rides, and I love not having to wait for buses. After deliberating a bit, we decided to take our own car; however, this may not be the best option for your trip.
At the end of the article, I’ll share some more insights on the pros and cons of taking the bus, along with other sights within Acadia National Park that we plan on visiting during our next trip.
Cadillac Mountain
Cadillac Mountain was our first stop. At 1,530 feet, it’s the highest place in not only Acadia National Park, but also the surrounding area. A road will lead you to the top, but there are also hiking trails to the summit. Along the road there are a few scenic overlooks that are worth stopping at.
Finding a parking spot at the summit of Cadillac Mountain is challenging (more on this later). Knowing that there’d be a lot of people, I took the first spot I could find. Benny wanted to keep looking for a spot, but I wasn’t going to take the chance. Besides, what’s the point of going to a national park if you’re not willing to walk a bit?
As I thought, there were a lot people, and if I hadn’t taken the spot I saw, we would have had to continue our journey without stopping at the summit. As we walked up, we saw a lot of people congregating at the top of the parking lot near cars.
Benny looked at me as if these people were crazy. “They come all this way to walk three feet away from their cars, snap a photo, and leave! They won’t even go down twenty steps!” he exclaimed as he pointed to a short staircase. Naturally, we made the extra effort, descended the staircase, and were rewarded by having a whole section of Cadillac Mountain entirely to ourselves.
Here are some other views from that area:
Nearby, there is another section. Here, people were actually walking around. We didn’t know how to feel about that. We were glad people were outside and enjoying nature, but we also wanted to have the place to ourselves. I guess you can’t have the best of both worlds!
Jordan Pond
Our next stop in Acadia National Park took us to Jordan Pond. It’s a beautiful spot; however, it was very, very difficult to find a parking spot here. So difficult, in fact, that I had to drive around the parking lot a few times, hoping that someone would leave.
I’m not usually someone who makes conversation with strangers, so when I saw a woman who was holding a child’s hand, carrying a cooler, and trying to calm a rambunctious small dog all at once, I decided it would be a great time to have Benny work on his social skills.
“Excuse me, are you leaving?” he asked her. Now, I know it’s not every day when a small bear asks for your parking spot, but she took it all in stride. She WAS leaving! I put the car in reverse, forcing the pickup behind us who was also stalking the lot for a spot to back up, and we happily drove in.
A 3.5-mile trail circles around Jordan Pond. Because of our time crunch, we had to put hiking this path on our “next time” list. We were getting hungry, so we set out to find a suitable place to have a picnic. Wouldn’t you know that there’s a restaurant nearby? The Jordan Pond House has been operating since the 1890s. But we had already packed our picnic, so we sat down under a tree to enjoy our sandwiches.
After our picnic, we went to check out the gift shop. If there’s one thing that isn’t lacking in Acadia National Park, it’s gift shops! After purchasing an Acadia poster that will go nicely on my wall, we embarrassingly got a little lost finding our way back to the car.
I know, it’s shameful. We weren’t even hiking, and I couldn’t find our way back. Benny thought it was to the right, I thought it was straight ahead. We were both wrong. But our temporary loss of directional skills helped us to come upon another Acadia National Park attraction: the carriage roads.
The Carriage Roads
The carriage roads were constructed in the early 20th century by John D. Rockefeller. He liked to travel on horseback, and he wanted a place to do so without running into any motor vehicles. Today, Acadia National Park has 45 miles of these carriage roads that are open to hikers, bikers, and horseback riders.
We were only on one of the carriage roads for about 1/4 mile, so this is also on our “check out next time” list, and honestly, I had to consider whether or not to include it on the list of places we actually visited. For more info on the carriage roads in Acadia National Park, check out the info on Acadiamagic.com.
Thunder Hole
Next on our list was the oceanside spot known as Thunder Hole. Here waves crash upon the rocks with such intensity that it sounds like thunder. Poor Benny thought it had something to do with real thunder. He’s not really a fan of storms, so he was happy to know that it was just the given name.
Thankfully, it was a bit easier to find parking here. We parked about a mile away because, frankly, we didn’t know any better. It worked out for the best: Walking that mile on Park Loop Road, we were met with astounding views of the ocean. We stopped for a bit along the way. As you can see in the video, Benny was getting tired and tried to take a nap.
After walking along for a mile, and stopping once in a while to explore the rock outcroppings, we made it to Thunder Hole. Unfortunately, there was no “thunder.” Thunder Hole is at its best when the tide is coming in, but neither Benny nor I had paid attention to high tide times.
Don’t fret, my dear readers! I was able to find a really cool video on Thunder Hole, courtesy of the Insider. I hope you enjoy it!
So, no thunder at Thunder Hole for us. To get any sort of thunder, we would have had to wait 3 hours for the tide to come in. How would we salvage this this part of our Acadia National Park experience?
This is when Benny had the best idea of the day. Why not go to a gift shop (obviously there was one close by) and have us some authentic Maine blueberry soda to enjoy on the rocks?
It turned out to be a great idea. Even after we were done, we stayed a while to enjoy the scenery. The soda perked us up and our energy level returned to just about normal.
But wait, there’s more!
As our Acadia National Park adventure unfolded throughout the day, we realized that spending only a half day in the park didn’t do it justice at all. With all there is to do and see, you could spend a week in the park. We will be back! On our list for next time is:
- Hike to Bubble Rock
- Walk around Jordan Pond
- Bike the carriage roads
- Swim at one of the freshwater ponds (There’s Sandy Beach that’s on the ocean, but we’re more so pond people).
Bus vs. Car
So, should you take the free bus to explore, or take your own car? Remember, what worked for us may not work for you. Here are some things to consider:
Pro bus thoughts:
- Parking can be very difficult. On top of Cadillac Mountain, there were only two spaces available. We almost had to leave Jordan Pond without stopping because we couldn’t find a spot.
- The bus is completely free.
- The bus runs every 30 minutes.
- You don’t have to deal with the stress that comes with oodles of traffic. (Yes, I’m using the word “oodles.”)
Pro car thoughts:
- If you get to Acadia National Park early enough (which we didn’t), parking may not be as bad.
- You have the freedom to go where you want, when you want. No waiting for the bus!
- Hot day? Blast the AC as high as you want!
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Acadia National Park is on Mount Desert Island and near the town of Bar Harbor. You don’t need to take a ferry or boat to get there.
These are great pics, and love the little videos you made! Was Benny drinking beer or a soda? A bear with a beer!
He was having a blueberry soda, but he kept telling everyone that it was beer. It almost got us kicked out of the park!
Love this post and the videos! Thunder hole looks amazing even without the thunder.
Thanks, Mia! It was still worth going and seeing that area of the park.
Hello your travel cap,
Thanks for sharing such a great things. After reading this like i visited this..
I’m glad you enjoyed reading and learning about our trip!